Abstract
Nervous systems are formidably complex networks of nonlinear interacting components that self organise and continually adapt to enable flexible behaviour. Robust and reliable function is therefore non-trivial to achieve and requires a number of dynamic mechanisms and design principles that are the subject of current research in neuroscience. A striking feature of these principles is that they resemble engineering solutions, albeit at a greater level of complexity and layered organisation than any artificial system. I will draw on these observations to argue that biological robustness in the nervous system remains a deep scientific puzzle, but not one that demands radically new concepts.
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I acknowledge support from ERC-StG grant 716643 FLEXNEURO.
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O’Leary, T. (2018). Can Engineering Principles Help Us Understand Nervous System Robustness?. In: Bertolaso, M., Caianiello, S., Serrelli, E. (eds) Biological Robustness. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01198-7_9
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